A San Antonio French teacher caught straddling a 15-year-old in her car. A Donna school security guard suspended for sending inappropriate texts to female students. A Waco band director who had sex with a high school girl in his music room.

These are just three of the 74 cases of inappropriate sexual relations between educators and students that have been opened since September.

The Texas Education Agency reported that, in the last three school years, there has been a 27 per cent increase in the number of student-teacher relationship investigations in the state.

San Antonio teacher Marcus Revila was given 17 years in prison for producing child pornography with a 16-year-old student who he got pregnant. Lisa Zuniga avoided a long prison sentence because she was pregnant with the child of a 13-year-old student she had sexual relations with.

There were 179 investigations during the 2013-14 school year, compared to 141 probes in the 2009-10 period, according to the Houston Chronicle.

The surge of cases in Texas corresponds to a national rise. There were 781 reported alleged cases of sexual relationships between students and school employees, according to the Washington Post.

Terry Abbott, a former chief of staff at the U.S. Department of Education, said that, on average, 15 new young people are reported to have been 'sexually victimized' by their teachers each week, he wrote in the Washington Post.

Abbott's firm, Drive West Communications, has been tracking media reports of relationships between students and their educators.

According to Abott, they found that Texas has the highest number in the country of teacher sexual misconduct cases.

Abott believes social media services have made it easier for teachers to 'develop improper relationships with students out of sight of parents and principals,' he wrote in the piece.

Brittni Colleps (left) was sentenced to five years in prison after she admitted to having sex with five 18-year-old students at her home. But the lawyer for Ashley Zehnder (right) is arguing that she did not commit a crime by having relations with a student because the age of consent in Texas is 17

He believes Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat have 'created an open gateway for inappropriate behavior'.

Some states are already taking action. In New Jersey, teachers are not allowed to add students on Facebook without written approval from their principal.

They can also only contact students electronically if its done through district computers.

A relationship between biology teacher and cheerleading coach Ashley Zehnder, 24, and a boy on the school's squad came to light because of technology.

Zehnder admitted to the relationship after the boy began showing a naked photograph she had sent him through Snapchat to fellow students at their Pasadena high school.

The teacher's lawyer has argued that Zehnder did not commit a crime because the age of consent in Texas is 17.

But some Texas teachers have been locked up for years after they were caught having sexual relationships with a student.

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Two Texas school districts have been rocked by multiple student-teacher relationships occurring just months apart, which included criminal justice teacher Carlo Andres Cordova and teacher Breanne Brown

San Antonio teacher Marcus Revila was given 17 years in prison without parole this year after he was charged with producing child pornography with a 16-year-old student he had relations with and is now pregnant with his child.

And Kennedale teacher Brittni Colleps was sentenced to five years in prison after she admitted to having sex with five 18-year-old students at her home.

But former teacher, Lisa Zuniga, was able to avoid a long prison sentence in 2003 because she was pregnant with the child of a 13-year-old student she had sexual relations with.

A South Texas school district recently got hit with a federal lawsuit after three employees were found to have had sexual relationships with students, according to the San Antonio Express-News.

One of those employees, criminal justice teacher Carlo Andres Cordova, was the son-in-law of the Donna district's superintendent and allegedly had sex with a female student in his classroom.

And barely a month after a health sciences teacher at the Abilene Independent School District admitted to having sex with a student, the district was rocked by another incident in January.

According to police, teacher Breanne Brown had sex with a 16-year-old student on 10 different occasions.